NAVY: USS Roanoke heads influx into Kitsap

NUTGRAPH: At least five more ships are scheduled for permanent or temporary homeporting in the Bremerton-Bangor area by 1996.

By Lloyd Pritchett

Sun Staff

A three-year influx of additional naval personnel to West Sound will get started Dec. 3 with the scheduled arrival of the combat logistics support ship USS Roanoke in Bremerton.

The Roanoke, with a crew of 400 enlisted men and 25 officers, is the first of several ships that will be moving to the Bremerton-Bangor area through 1996 -- most of them from installations that are closing down elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Navy spokesman Lt.j.g. John Tyner said the nuclear-powered cruiser USS Arkansas tentatively has been added to the roster of ships coming here.

The Arkansas, with a crew of about 550, currently is based at the Naval Air Station in Alameda, Calif., which is due to close in two years.

Other ships already scheduled for permanent or temporary homeporting in this area include the nuclearpowered carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, the new fast combat support ship USS Rainier and the nuclear submarine USS Parche.

Hundreds of shore-based naval personnel also will be arriving in West Sound from facilities shut down by the Base Closure and Realignment Commission.

But little or no new hiring is planned at local Navy bases.

The total number of military and civilian personnel arriving in the Bremerton-Bangor area is expected to be about 6,200 through 1996, according to Navy documents.

Meanwhile, about 675 will leave due to the decommissioning of the Bremerton-based cruiser USS Truxtun and through the transfer to the East Coast of the local PERA-CV office (Planning, Estimating, Repair and Alteration of Aircraft Carriers).

The Bremerton-based supercarrier USS Nimitz also is leaving in early 1998 for a lengthy nuclear refueling overhaul at Newport News, Va., according to Navy officials. But it probably will be replaced by another carrier.

In a phone interview, the USS Roanoke's skipper, Capt. Larry E. Cook, said he and the crew are "looking forward to coming up to the Great Northwest."

The ship is coming here because its current home port, Long Beach Naval Station in Southern California, is scheduled for closure in 1994. It will be berthed at Bremerton's Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.

Cook, a career aviator who eventually hopes to command a carrier, said families of some crew members may begin arriving in West Sound as early as next week. The ship visited Bremerton for three days in September to enable crew members to find housing.

He said he and the crew are looking forward to the move because of the Northwest's quality of life, its lower crime rate and its lower cost of living.

The ship will undergo a brief maintenance period at PSNS not long after arriving in Bremerton.

It is scheduled for a deployment sometime in 1994 to the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean, where it will supply fuel, ammunition, supplies and foodstuffs to ships of forward-deployed U.S. battle groups.

The ship, nicknamed the "Polar Express" after it set efficiency records off Alaska during its first deployment, can carry 160,000 barrels of fuel and 600 tons of ammunition.

Cook said the Roanoke has an all-male crew comprised mostly of single men age 25 or younger. He said no decision has been made about whether to assign women sailors to the ship.

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